Model andheavenlypatronessof domestic servants, born early in
the thirteenth century of apoorfamilyat Montsegradi, a little village nearLucca, inTuscany; died atLucca, 27 April, 1271. Anaturallyhappydisposition and the teaching of avirtuousmother, aided byDivine grace, developed in the
child'ssoulthat sweetness and modesty ofcharacterand continual andconscientiousapplication to work which constituted
her especialvirtues. At the age
of twelve she entered the service of theFatinellifamilyofLucca. Herpietyand the exactitude with which she discharged her domesticduties, in which she regarded
herself as servingGodrather thanman, even
supplying the deficiencies of her fellow servants, far from gaining for her
theirloveand esteem and that of her employers rather brought upon her every
manner of ill-treatment of both the former and, through their accusations, of
the latter. The incessant ill-usage, however, was powerless to deprive her of
her inward peace, herloveof those who wronged her, and her respect for her employers. By this
meek andhumbleself-restraint she at last succeeded in overcoming themaliceof her fellow-servants and her
employers, so much so that she was placed in charge of all the affairs of the
house.

In
her position of command over all the servants she treated all with kindness,
not exacting from them any reckoning for the wrongs she had for so many years
suffered from them. She was always circumspect, and only severe when there was
a question of checking the introduction ofviceamong the servants. On the other hand,
if any of them had been guilty of shortcomings, she took upon herself to excuse
or defend them to their employers. Using the ample authority given her by her
employers, she was generous inalmsgiving, but careful to assist
only those really in need. After her death numerousmiracleswere wrought at herintercession,
so that she came to beveneratedas asaintin the neighbourhood ofLucca, and the poets Fazio
degli Uberti (Dittamonde, III, 6) andDante(Inferno, XI, 38) both designate the city ofLuccasimply as "Santa Zita". The office in herhonourwas approved byLeo X.

In
1580 hertombwas discovered in the Church of S.Frediano;
thus was suggested thesolemnapprobationof her cult, which was granted byInnocent XIIin 1696. The earliest biography of thesaintis preserved in an anonymousmanuscriptbelonging to theFatinellifamilywhich was published atFerrarain 1688 byMonsignorFatinelli,"Vita beatf Zitf virginisLucensisex vetustissimocodicemanuscripto fideliter
transumpta". For his fuller "Vita e miracoli di S. Zita vergine
lucchese" (Lucca, 1752) Bartolomeo Fiorito has used this and other
notices, especially those taken from the process drawn up toprovethe immemorial cult.

Zita came from a poor, but deeply devotional family. The lack of social standing is probably the reason Zita's last name has not been recorded in history. To help support the family, she became a maid of a wealthy family, Fatinelli, in the Tuscan city of Lucca, serving them loyally for 48 years.

From and early age, Zita expressed concern for the poor and helpless of Lucca. As her reputation spread, the needy began to seek her out. This did not sit well with the Fatinelli family, as time spent with the poor was not time spent in her maid servant duties. As the story goes, the Lord intervened as necessary. On one such event, Zita left her chore of baking bread to tend to someone in need. Some of the other servants made sure the Fatinelli family was aware of what happened. When they went to investigate, they found angels in the Fatinelli kitchen, picking up Zita's slack. From that point on, the Fatinelli family and even the other servants were a little more understanding toward her mission. On another event, Zita had given away the family's supply of beans to the townsfolk during a severe famine. Upon suspecting this, the Fatinelli family went to the cupboard to find it full - the beans hand been miracuously replaced. Another recorded event was as dramatic, if not more so. On Christmas Eve, Zita had given away a prized and treasured family cloak to a shivering man at the doorway of St. Fredaino, the local church. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. While the elder Fatinelli was in the midst of a fit of fury, an elderly man came to the door and returned the heirloom. When townsfolk heard of the event, they decided that the man must have been an angel. From that point on, the doorway of the St. Fredaino church in Lucca has been called the "Angel Portal".

Besides being the patron saint for domestic workers and maids, she's the one to ask to help find lost keys.

She was born in the beginning of the thirteenth century at Montsegradi, a village near Lucca in Italy. She was brought up with the greatest care, in the fear of God, by her poor virtuous mother, whose early and constant attention to inspire the tender heart of her daughter with religious sentiments seemed to find no obstacles, either from private passions or the general corruption of nature, so easily were they prevented or overcome. Zita had no sooner attained the use of reason, and was capable of knowing and loving God, than her heart was no longer able to relish any other object, and she seemed never to lose sight of him in her actions. Her mother reduced all her instructions to two short heads, and never had occasion to use any further remonstrance to enforce her lessons than to say, "This is most pleasing to God; this is the divine will"; or, "That would displease God."

The sweetness and modesty of the young child charmed everyone who saw her. She spoke little, and was most assiduous at her work; but her business never seemed to interrupt her prayers. At twelve years of age she was put to service in the family of a citizen of Lucca, called Fatinelli, whose house was contiguous to the church of St. Frigidian. She was thoroughly persuaded that labour is enjoined all men as a punishment of sin, and as a remedy for the spiritual disorders of their souls; and far from ever harbouring in her breast the least uneasiness, or expressing any sort of complaint under contradictions, poverty, and hardships, and still more from ever entertaining the least idle, inordinate, or worldly desire, she blessed God for placing her in a station in which she was supplied with the most effectual means to promote her sanctification, by the necessity of employing herself in penitential labour, and of living in a perpetual conformity and submission of her will to others. She was also very sensible of the advantages of her state, which afforded all necessaries of life, without engaging her in the anxious cares and violent passions by which worldly persons, who enjoy most plentifully the goods of fortune, are often disturbed; whereby their souls resemble a troubled sea, always agitated by impetuous storms, without knowing the sweetness of a true calm. She considered her work as an employment assigned her by God, and as part of her penance; and obeyed her master and mistress in all things as being placed over her by God. She always rose several hours before the rest of the family and employed in prayer a considerable part of the time which others gave to sleep. She took care to hear mass every morning with great devotion before she was called upon by the duties of her station, in which she employed the whole day with such diligence and fidelity that she seemed to be carried to them on wings, and studied when possible to anticipate them.

Notwithstanding her extreme attention to her exterior employments, she acquired a wonderful facility of joining with them almost continual mental prayer and of keeping her soul constantly attentive to the divine presence. Who would not imagine that such a person should have been esteemed and beloved by all who knew her?

Nevertheless, by the appointment of divine providence, for her great spiritual advantage, it fell out quite otherwise and for several years she suffered the harshest trials. Her modesty was called by her fellow-servants simplicity, and want of spirit and sense; and her diligence was judged to have no other spring than affectation and secret pride. Her mistress was a long time extremely prepossessed against her, and her passionate master could not bear her in his sight without transports of rage.

It is not to be conceived how much the saint had continually to suffer in this situation. So unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, and often beaten, she never repined nor lost her patience; but always preserved the same sweetness in her countenance, and the same meekness and charity in her heart and words, and abated nothing of her application to her duties. A virtue so constant and so admirable at length overcame jealousy, antipathy, prepossession, and malice.

Her master and mistress discovered the treasure which their family possessed in the fidelity and example of the humble saint, and the other servants gave due praise to her virtue. Zita feared this prosperity more than adversity, and trembled lest it should be a snare to her soul. But sincere humility preserved her from its dangers; and her behaviour, amidst the caresses and respect shown her, continued the same as when she was ill-treated and held in derision; she was no less affable, meek, and modest; no less devout, nor less diligent or ready to serve everyone. Being made housekeeper, and seeing her master and mistress commit to her with an entire confidence the government of their family and management of all their affairs, she was most scrupulously careful in point of economy, remembering that she was to give to God an account of the least farthing of what was intrusted as a depositum in her .hands; and, though head-servant, she never allowed herself the least privilege or exemption in her work on that account.

She used often to say to others that devotion is false if slothful. Hearing a man-servant speak one immodest word, she was filled with horror, and procured him to be immediately discharged from the family. With David, she desired to see it composed only of such whose approved piety might draw down a benediction of God upon the whole house and be a security to the master for their fidelity and good example. She kept fast the whole year, and often on bread and water; and took her rest on the bare floor or on a board. Whenever business allowed her a little leisure, she spent it in holy prayer and contemplation in a little retired room in the garret; and at her work repeated frequently ardent ejaculations of divine love, with which her soul appeared always inflamed. She respected her fellow-servants as her superiors. If she was sent on commissions a mile or two in the greatest storms, she set out without delay, executed them punctually, and returned often almost drowned, without showing any sign of reluctance or murmuring.

By her virtue she gained so great an ascendant over her master that a single word would often suffice to check the greatest transports of his rage; and she would sometimes cast herself at his feet to appease him in favour of others. She never kept anything for herself but the poor garments which she wore: everything else she gave to the poor. Her master, seeing his goods multiply, as it were, in her hands, gave her ample leave to bestow liberal alms on the poor, which she made use of with discretion, but was scrupulous to do nothing without his express authority. If she heard others spoken ill of, she zealously took upon her their defence and excused their faults.

Always when she communicated, and often when she heard mass, and on other occasions, she melted in sweet tears of divine love: she was often favoured with ecstasies during her prayers. In her last sickness she clearly foretold her death, and having prepared herself for her passage by receiving the last sacraments, and by ardent signs of love, she happily expired on the 27th of April, in 1272, being sixty years old: one hundred and fifty miracles wrought in the behalf of such as had recourse to her intercession have been juridically proved. Her body was found entire in 1580 and is kept with great respect in St. Frigidian's church, richly enshrined; her face and hands are exposed naked to view through a crystal glass. Pope Leo X granted an office in her honour. The city of Lucca pays a singular veneration to her memory.

The solemn decree of her beatification was published by Innocent XII in 1696, with the confirmation of her immemorial veneration. See her life, compiled by a contemporary writer, and published by Papebroke, the Bollandist, on the 27th of April, p. 497, and Benedict XIV De Canoniz. lib. ii. c. 24, p. 245.

(Taken from Vol. IV of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company)

Saint Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272) is the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is also appealed to in order to help find lost keys.

Born at Monte Sagrati, Italy, she entered into the service of the Fratinelli family, wool dealers in Lucca, at the age of twelve. Immediately disliked by the other servants for her hard work and obvious goodness, she earned their special enmity because of her habit of giving away food and clothing to the poor including those of her employers. In time, she won over the members of the household.

According to one tradition, the other servants were convinced when one day they found an angel taking Zita’s place in baking and cleaning. Throughout her life she labored on behalf of the poor and suffering as well as criminals languishing in prisons. She was also credited with a variety of miracles. Canonized in 1696, she is depicted in art with a bag and keys, or loaves of bread

Zita of Lucca V (RM)
(also known as Sitha, Citha)
Born at Monte Sagrati, near Lucca, Tuscany, Italy; died in Lucca on April 27,
1278; liturgical cultus permitted locally by Leo X (early 16th century);
canonized in 1696; name added to the Roman Martyrology in 1748 by Benedict XIV.

For two hundred years before
and after the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in
800 AD, female saints were obscured by time and circumstance. Thereafter, in
the Age of Mysticism from about 1000 to 1500, we witness the re-emergence of
saintly female mystics, such as Hildegard and Catherine of Siena.

Christian mysticism is an
endeavor to reach a knowledge of and union with God directly and
experientially. The mystic renounces his senses and the images they offer of
God, seeking instead to wander down a negative road. Often, this type of
contemplative prayer leads to abnormal psychic states that culminate in
ecstasy, which is sanctified when perfectly united with God. The individuals
who reach this state normally exhibit extraordinary self-knowledge and become
fully free, unique human beings. The heightened mystical sense also leads to an
ever more passionate love of God.

As will be shown frequently
in these biographies of the saints, the mystical life in no way conflicts with
the duties of any Christian state of life: married (e.g., Francis of Rome),
avowed celibate (Saint Teresa of Avila), or domestic servant.

Saint Zita was born in a
mountain village near Lucca into a very devout family. Her elder sister became
a Cistercian nun and her uncle, Graziano, was a hermit who was locally regarded
as a saint. From the age of 12, Zita was a domestic servant in the family of
Pagano di Fatinelli of Lucca, a wool and silk merchant. This devoted woman, who
was deeply religious, remained with this family all her life. She served it for
48 years--as maid servant, then housekeeper, and governess--and every member of
the family had the deepest respect and affection for her.

There are numerous stories
of her attention to household duties, of her care for beggars, of her devotion
to religious practices, and of the fidelity with which she attended Mass each
day of her adult life at the Church of San Frediano. The good food she was
provided by her employer, she would distribute to the poor. More often than
not, she could be found sleeping on the bare ground or lost in prayer, after
having given up her bed to a beggar. Her work was part of her religion, as it
should be for us, a way of serving God in our neighbor.

At first her fellow
servants mocked her piety and kindness. Zita paid no attention, and in the end
they grew to admire her. But her master was often irritated that she gave away
so much. During a local famine she secretly gave away much of the family supply
of beans. When her master inspected the kitchen cupboards, to Zita's relief the
beans had been miraculously restocked (recall the similar story about Saint
Frances of Rome). Another story tells that angels baked her bread while she was
rapt in ecstasy

A characteristic story of
her generous nature is of how one Christmas Eve, when she was setting out for
the early morning service, the cold was so intense that her employer, seeing
her in her thin gown, wrapped his own fur cloak round her shoulders, and
insisted on her taking it. "But take care of it," he said, "and
be sure to bring it back." At the church door, however, Zita saw a poor
man in rags, numb with cold and begging for alms. She could never resist a
beggar and on the impulse of the moment she took off her master's cloak and put
it round him. "It will keep you warm," she said, "and you can
return it to me when the service is over." But when she came out of the
church, the man had gone, and in great distress she returned home without the
cloak. Her employer, naturally, was angry, but what troubled Zita most was
that, out of pity for another, she had abused his kindness.

The story had a happy
sequel, for the next day a stranger came to the door and restored the missing
cloak. People later decided that the poor old man must have been an angel in
disguise, and so the door of the Church of San Frediano, Lucca, where he first
appeared, is called the Angel Portal.

Zita was always moved by
generous impulse, and endeared herself to all by her compassionate nature, and
all her life long she was sustained by a simple and strong faith in God. Zita
was embarrassed by the veneration in which her employers and neighbors held her
later in life. Nevertheless, she was happy that some of her domestic duties
were relieved because it gave her the time to tend to the sick, the poor, and
prisoners. She had a special devotion to criminals awaiting execution, on whose
behalf she would spend hours in prayer.

Zita died peacefully at the
age of 60, having sanctified herself in a life of humble domestic tasks, and as
the little Maid of Lucca is numbered among the saints. Immediately, a popular
cultus developed around her tomb at San Frediano. Her cultus spread to other
countries in the later Middle Ages, as testified by chapels in her honor as
scattered as vat Palermo, Sicily, and Ely, England (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Gill, Encyclopedia, Martindale, Walsh, White).

In art, Saint Zita is
depicted in the working clothes of a maid servant with her emblem: keys. She
may be shown (1) with a rosary, bag, and keys; (2) with a rosary; (3) with two
keys and three loaves; (4) with keys and a book; (5) with a basket of fruit;
(6) with a bag and book; (7) with a book and rosary; or (8) praying at a well
(Roeder, White). She appears in mural paintings (Shorthampton, Oxon.), in
stained glass (Mells and Langport, Somerset), and on rood screens in Norfolk
(Barton Turf), Suffolk (Somerleyton), and Devon (Ashton) (Farmer).

Saint Zita is the patroness
of housewives and servants. In England, she was known as Sitha and invoked by
housewives and servants searching for lost keys or crossing raging rivers
(White). She is still venerated at Lucca, where her body is housed in the
Cappella di Santa Zita in the church of San Frediano (Jepson, Roeder).

SHE was born in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, at Montsegradi, a village near Lucca, in Italy. She was brought up
with the greatest care, in the fear of God, by her poor virtuous mother, whose
early and constant attention to inspire the tender heart of her daughter with
religious sentiments seemed to find no obstacles, either from private passions
or the general corruption of nature; so easily were they prevented or overcome.
Zita had no sooner attained the use of reason, and was capable of knowing and
loving God, than her heart was no longer able to relish any other object, and
she seemed never to lose sight of him in her actions. Her mother reduced all
her instructions to two short heads, and never had occasion to use any further
remonstrance to enforce her lessons than to say: “This is most pleasing to God;
this is the divine will,” or, “That would displease God.” The sweetness and
modesty of the young child charmed every one who saw her. She spoke little, and
was most assiduous at her work, but her business never seemed to interrupt her
prayers. At twelve years of age she was put to service in the family of a
citizen of Lucca, called Fatinelli, whose house was contiguous to the church of
St. Frigidian. She was thoroughly persuaded that labour is enjoined all men as
a punishment of sin, and as a remedy for the spiritual disorders of their
souls: and, far from ever harbouring in her breast the least uneasiness, or
expressing any sort of complaint under contradictions, poverty, and hardships,
and still more from ever entertaining the least idle, inordinate, or worldly
desire, she blessed God for placing her in a station in which she was supplied
with the most effectual means to promote her sanctification, by the necessity
of employing herself in penitential labour, and of living in a perpetual
conformity and submission of her will to others. She was also very sensible of
the advantages of her state, which afforded all necessaries of life, without
engaging her in the anxious cares and violent passions by which worldly
persons, who enjoy most plentifully the goods of fortune, are often disturbed;
whereby their souls resemble a troubled sea, always agitated by impetuous
storms, without knowing the sweetness of a true calm. She considered her work
as an employment assigned her by God, and as part of her penance; and obeyed
her master and mistress in all things, as being placed over her by God. She
always rose several hours before the rest of the family, and employed in prayer
a considerable part of the time which others gave to sleep. She took care to
hear mass every morning with great devotion, before she was called upon by the
duties of her station, in which she employed the whole day with such diligence
and fidelity that she seemed to be carried to them on wings, and studied when
possible to anticipate them. Notwithstanding her extreme attention to her
exterior employments, she acquired a wonderful facility of joining with them
almost continual mental prayer, and of keeping her soul constantly attentive to
the divine presence. Who would not imagine that such a person should have been
esteemed and beloved by all who knew her? Nevertheless, by the appointment of
divine providence, for her great spiritual advantage, it fell out quite
otherwise, and for several years she suffered the harshest trials. Her modesty
was called by her fellow-servants simplicity, and want of spirit and sense; and
her diligence was judged to have no other spring than affectation and secret
pride. Her mistress was a long time extremely prepossessed against her, and her
passionate master could not bear her in his sight without transports of rage.
It is not to be conceived how much the saint had continually to suffer in this
situation. So unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, and often beaten, she
never repined nor lost her patience; but always preserved the same sweetness in
her countenance, and the same meekness and charity in her heart and words, and
abated nothing of her application to her duties. A virtue so constant and so
admirable, at length overcame jealousy, antipathy, prepossession, and malice.
Her master and mistress discovered the treasure which their family possessed in
the fidelity and example of the humble saint, and the other servants gave due
praise to her virtue. Zita feared this prosperity more than adversity, and
trembled lest it should be a snare to her soul. But sincere humility preserved
her from its dangers; and her behaviour, amidst the caresses and respect shown
her, continued the same as when she was ill-treated and held in derision; she
was no less affable, meek, and modest; no less devout, nor less diligent or
ready to serve every one. Being made housekeeper, and seeing her master and
mistress commit to her, with an entire confidence, the government of their family
and management of all their affairs, she was most scrupulously careful in point
of economy, remembering that she was to give to God an account of the least
farthing of what was intrusted as a depositum in her hands; and, though
head-servant, she never allowed herself the least privilege or exemption in her
work on that account. She used often to say to others, that devotion is false
if slothful. Hearing a man-servant speak one immodest word, she was filled with
horror, and procured him to be immediately discharged from the family. With
David, she desired to see it composed only of such whose approved piety might
drawn down a benediction of God upon the whole house, and be a security to the
master for their fidelity and good example. She fasted the whole year, and
often on bread and water; and took her rest on the bare floor, or on a board.
Whenever business allowed her a little leisure, she spent it in holy prayer and
contemplation in a little retired room in the garret; and at her work repeated
frequently ardent ejaculations of divine love, with which her soul appeared
always inflamed. She respected her fellow-servants as her superiors. If she
were sent on commissions a mile or two in the greatest storms, she set out
without delay, executed them punctually, and returned often almost drowned,
without showing any sign of reluctance or murmuring. By her virtue she gained
so great an ascendant over her master, that a single word would often suffice
to check the greatest transports of his rage; and she would sometimes cast
herself at his feet to appease him in favour of others. She never kept anything
for herself but the poor garments which she wore; every thing else she gave to
the poor. Her master, seeing his goods multiply, as it were, in her hands, gave
her ample leave to bestow liberal alms on the poor; which she made use of with
discretion, but was scrupulous to do nothing without his express authority. If
she heard others spoken ill of, she zealously took upon her their defence, and
excused their faults. Always when she communicated, and often when she heard
mass, and on other occasions, she melted in sweet tears of divine love: she was
often favoured with ecstacies during her prayers. In her last sickness, she
clearly foretold her death, and having prepared herself for her passage by
receiving the last sacraments, and by ardent sighs of love, she happily expired
on the 27th of April, in 1272, being sixty years old: one hundred and fifty
miracles wrought in the behalf of such as had recourse to her intercession have
been juridically proved. Her body was found entire in 1580, and is kept with
great respect in St. Frigidian’s church, richly enshrined; her face and hands
are exposed naked to view through a crystal glass. Pope Leo X. granted an
office in her honour. The city of Lucca pays a singular veneration to her
memory. The solemn decree of her beatification was published by Innocent XII.
in 1696, with the confirmation of her immemorial veneration. See her life
compiled by a contemporary writer, and published by Papebroke the Bollandist,
on the 27th of April, p. 497, and Benedict XIV. De Canoniz. l. 2, c. 24, p. 245.